Posts Tagged "Signs"

The Ongoing Innovations in Digital LED Signs

As we have stated time and time again, Media Resources is the leading supplier to the outdoor advertising community. We supply solutions to complement any media campaign from simple POP displays through to large, technical and complex LED signage. Add in our expertise in custom-made 3D displays and the endless potential of using print to tie in and integrate with your campaign, this all makes us the go to resource for any of your signage needs.

We carry a number of leading edge products, one of which we are most proud of is our intelligent VISIONiQ LED system, this system has been supplying indoor and outdoor LED products to the out-of-home advertising community, sports, education and entertainment industries as well as to re-sellers for years.

New technologies and fresh thinking are changing what is possible and we are at the forefront of this change, making smart use of technology and opening up the potential of this ever growing medium.

Our LED’s are high resolution, slim and light weight and can connect to real-time networks. These signs are capable of displaying all forms of digital content whether inside or out in the elements.

Media Resources is leading the way in LED technology with our VISIONiQ sealed module system. With front and rear service, the VISIONiQ technology allows for a hassle-free installation and maintenance of each panel, which comes fully equipped with its own diagnostic software for around-the-clock monitoring. Waterproof cabling and cabinet construction ensures your product is protected against the harshest of elements.

Other Highlights of purchasing your LED signs from Media Resources are:

Built Like a Computer Network: with full redundancy and top tier components to drive maximum up-time

Built for Safety and Simple Servicing: no welding, no screws or special tools for rapid installation and servicing

Here is a list of some of the ways we can help you with your LED signage needs, depending on your business:

On-Premise RGB

Digital Out of Home

Custom Spectaculars

Scoreboards

Monochrome

Our VISIONiQ modules are highly innovative, waterproof, temperature controls, featuring a multi-latch (front & rear service standard) configuration with 185 mph pull-out rating; with common module size. We offer a number of options as broken down below:

Now that we’ve got the technical stuff out of the way, let’s have a look at the many different uses for our LED’s and how we have helped hundreds of companies across North America with their digital LED signage projects.

Since 2013, Canadian Business Executive Magazine has recognized companies from across the country that have committed their enterprises to success, satisfied employees, and superior products and services through the annual Best of Canada awards.

This year, Media Resources was one of 17 companies selected from nearly 200 eligible featured businesses for the 2016 Best of Canada honor due in large part to our industry contributions and forward-thinking nature.

Steve Gallow, one of the managing partners at Media Resources says, “We are honoured to be recognized with the recognition of a “Best in Canada” company by Canadian Business Executive. This reflects the amazing work our employees do ever day to deliver solutions for our customers.”

Media Resources is honoured to be included in the list of winners along with these great 2016 Best of Canada honorees:

Absorbent Products Ltd.

APG-Neuros Inc.

Aqua Drain Sewer Services Inc.

Atlantic Potato Distributors

Atlas Overhead Doors Inc.

Aurora Importing & Distributing Limited

Barkman Concrete Ltd.

Brussels Livestock

Byron’s Plumbing Ltd.

Eastern Fish Markets Limited

Evergreen Herbs & Roots Organic

Media Resources

Rolling Mix Concrete (B.C.) Ltd.

Saskarc Industries Inc.

Stemmler’s Meat & Cheese

The Dalton Company Ltd.

White Cap Distribution

You can view the original announcement by Canadian Business Executive at this link for more info.

Building and Installing a Digital LED Billboard

Designing, engineering, building and installing a digital LED billboard is no small task and at Media Resources we do it all from scratch from sizing and cutting the metal work to piecing the whole thing together, without the use of welding to all of the electical wiring and programming the LED components. If that wasn’t enough we also make sure the entire unit is sealed tight and waterproofed, that the LED components are perfectly lined up and the whole unit is put together and tested right in our warehouse. Then, we take it all apart and prep it for shipping, we load it safely onto a transport truck and we follow it to it’s new home and we install the whole thing.

What you, the consumer see’s when you drive by one of these huge LED billboards is all just the icing on the cake, below we will take you through the steps required to design, engineer, build and install a 14×48 foot long digital LED Billboard.

Custom extrusions are shipped to Media Resources from the supplier and stored until needed for a new build, at which time they are carefully inspected before production begins. Since Media Resources uses an extrusion-based construction we use this CNC saw to perform any end cuts and miters. An operator programs angles and dimensions and the machine is able to make 2 simultaneous cuts on both ends with incredible accuracy and speed. This greatly improves production throughput and consistency.

The frames are then laid out and assembled with a number of dimensional checks along the way. We use a number of jigs and clamps to ensure straightness and square-ness of the entire frame. This is critical as even the smallest mis-dimensions can affect the visual quality of an LED display.

The Media Resources VISIONiQ large frame system, colloquially referred to as “Big Iron”, requires absolutely no welding or drilling in its construction. This mitigates any potential quality defects due to the high craftsmanship requirement of welding or other human error. To create very long lengths, we use a combination of bolted plates and acrylic adhesive at the splice points, guaranteeing that these become actually the strongest parts of the section; this has been a known failure point in competitor’s systems.

While our metalworking team is constructing the frame, our router team will be cutting faceplates and other auxiliary components using our CNC router. The faceplates will eventually hold the VISIONiQ modules. Because the faceplates are identical, the router team is able to build up a reserve of pieces so production is able to flow.

Once the faceplates are cut and finished they are placed onto the box, aligned with a special jig and riveted into the extrusion frame. Rivet chases in the extrusion frame gather the rivets and position the faceplates automatically for a precise fit.

After the metalwork assembly is complete, a full inspection guarantees the frame is ready for population. The frame is then mounted to a moveable bracket system with castors that doubles as a shipping bracket. The population team then installs the LED modules, places power and control components, routes and connects cables/wiring, installs cabinet doors and hooks up the unit for test. Specialists then produce and install the networking and computing equipment into the door-mounted compartments.

With all the assembly complete and subsystems tested, the entire board, sometimes produced in multiple sections, is fitment tested on our lifting gantries. Every board undergoes a high-power “burn-in” session of a minimum 48 hours to ensure that weaker components are “shaken out” before leaving the plant. Finally the board is inspected for visual quality and calibrated for colour accuracy.

With testing complete and having been inspected my multiple levels of experts and management we disassemble the construction and slowly and carefully load the components onto the truck for shipping and delivery.

Once on-site, the full size digital bulletin is lifted from the truck and quickly assembled on the ground before being lifted in a single piece. The Media Resources “Big Iron” system can be safely lifted with a two-point pick up with no spreader bar.

Once lifted, the board is rested on its ledger brackets at the bottom, and a number of clamping features grip the steel I-beams to secure it in place. Finally, once electrical is hooked up and the onboard cellular modem makes its connection to the internet, the board is operational and generating revenue on the very same day.

Media Resources Featured in Sign Media Magazine for 50th Anniversary

As Media Resources Inc celebrates our 50th year in the business, we were given the opportunity to be featured in a special anniversary issue of Sign Media Magazine, who also happen to be celebrating a milestone anniversary this year.

Media Resources International (MRI), now celebrating its 50th anniversary, has evolved significantly throughout the years under the guidance of Keith Edwards who is currently its co-owner and chief operating officer (COO). His older brother Grant registered the company as Grant Sign Services back in 1966 and got it up and running in 1967, specializing in sign installation and maintenance. Edwards joined a few years later, in 1972, and eventually became general manager (GM) in 1990 after his brother got out of the business.

Now, MRI not only installs and maintains signs, but also designs, prints and fabricates items that are used in various aspects of the sign industry.

“We’ve come a long way,” says Edwards, “from a small installation company of three people in 1967 to a national company with more than 180 employees today.”

Investing in growth

When Grant exited the business, he sold it to Robert J. Deluce, now best-known as president and CEO of Porter Airlines.

“I worked for Bob as GM for 10 years and learned a lot,” says Edwards, “but he didn’t want to invest in the further growth of the company. In late 1999, I decided I wanted to buy it back. I worked with two silent partners to help finance the deal and then we really ramped up the business. In our first year, we went from having about 13 employees to 35, bought new equipment and more than doubled our sales. It was mainly a matter of getting additional work from our existing customers, as we had the capacity to do so.”

In addition to growing in scale, the company grew in the diversity of its products and services. By way of example, one of Edwards’ business partners, Steve Gallow, had a background in large-format printing and led an effort in 2003 and 2004 to expand MRI into that field. (The other silent partner was Cal Courneya, whose background was in out-of-home (OOH) advertising with MediaCom. He has since retired, selling his shares to Jeff Rushton.)

“Being an installation company, we used to receive graphics printed by other companies,” Edwards explains, “but if they were printed wrong or delivered late, we got blamed. So by printing them ourselves instead, we could fix any problems better and faster.”

Under the oversight of Will Thomson, the 4th partner of the current ownership team at MRI, the 15 person print team at MRI continues to print approximately 200,000 square feet of graphics per month. A large percentage of their work is for high-resolution outdoor billboards, but they also print at higher resolutions on acrylic, polycarbonates and glass up to 1,440 DPI using both solvent-based and ultraviolet-curing (UV-curing) inkjet printers.

In 2005, MRI bought a manufacturer whose tri-vision signs it had previously installed and serviced. Rebranded as Rite Sign International, it became a highly successful division of the company.

“We started making these signs here and got to approximately 95 per cent market share in Canada,” says Edwards. “It was a great business for us.”

A similar move into large-scale light-emitting diode (LED) displays involved a sales agreement and partnership with U.S.-based Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO) in 2009 and the eventual acquisition of Hamilton Digital Designs (HDD), based in Burlington, Ont., in 2011.

“We started developing new LED systems after buying HDD, as then we had the financing and personnel to make it happen,” says Edwards. “We modified colour positioning to optimize the screens’ horizontal and vertical viewing angles, sourced more efficient and powerful LEDs and angled them downward to reduce the waste of light spillage upward. We may not be as big as Daktronics or Watchfire, but we run head-to-head with them and about 60 per cent of our sales are in the U.S., where they’re based.”

Grant’s name stayed on the company during the first few years of its new co-ownership structure, but was soon no longer suitable for the growing mix of services and products.

“Our divisions all had different names,” Edwards explains, “so we held a contest within the company to come up with one brand for everything we did. That was how we rebranded as “Media Resources International…solutions for the sign industry”

Added dimensions

MRI’s current mix of services includes large-format digital printing, custom LED Display fabrication as well as the production of large LED displays, such as scoreboards. The company’s clients include OOH firms, on-premise sign manufacturers, advertising agencies, real estate developers, arenas and highway billboards.

“Installation and maintenance is still a large portion of what we do, comprising about 50 per cent of our overall business,” Edwards says, “then five per cent is printing and the other 45 per cent is LED digital billboards and displays, but this is growing at a rapid rate.”

Over the past few years, MRI has also developed a reputation for the specialized fabrication and installation of large three-dimensional larger than life props for the OOH industry. In 2014, for example, Pattison Outdoor launched a Coca-Cola billboard in Vancouver and Toronto to coincide with the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Both billboards were updated with a tally of Team Canada’s medals.

The project was a runner-up in the 2014 National Sign Competition’s OOH category, beaten only by a fellow MRI-made stunt—a giant Mike’s Hard Lemonade can that was installed along Toronto’s Yonge Street in the summer of 2013.

More recently, the company developed a giant roulette wheel for Clear Channel Outdoor, advertising Fallsview Casino of Niagara Falls, Ont., to people passing by Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square.

“Computer-aided design (CAD) technology has made this kind of work quicker and more affordable than it used to be,” says Edwards. “We’ve invested in more computer numerical control (CNC) cutters for working with foam, as we’ve been inundated with this type of work and still don’t have enough people to handle the demand. It’s a niche where we’ve done a great job at marketing.”

The LED display business is also growing for MRI.

“We’re good at creating custom digital billboards, but in the last 18 months, we’ve also seen more and more indoor LED display projects come along,” says Edwards. “They’ve quickly grown from a very small portion to about 10 per cent of our work. We can get down to a pixel pitch of 1.7 mm (67 mil), which looks clear from about 3 to 4 m (10 to 13 ft) away.”

A longer reach

In 2010, MRI’s headquarters (HQ) moved from Mississauga, Ont., to a fully owned 5,574-m2 (60,000-sf) building in neighbouring Oakville. This centre of operations is also complemented by smaller facilities in Richmond, B.C., Edmonton and Calgary, along with sales offices throughout North America. And to back up its claim as Canada’s only national sign installation company, MRI operates more than 100 installation and service vehicles.

“Back in the 1970s when I joined the industry, large sign companies had their own trucks,” Edwards explains. “Nowadays, most of them have gotten out of the installation business. And no OOH firms do their own maintenance. The costs of the vehicles have gone way up and you have to roll them over pretty quickly to keep your fleet viable. So we pride ourselves on taking on that work for the trade. We’re a partner to them, not a competitor.”

And in the LED display business, MRI’s reach extends not only throughout the U.S., but also into South America into markets like Peru and Argentina, where it has worked with local OOH firms.

Nevertheless, MRI remains committed to its roots in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). In 2015, the company won an Oakville Award for Business Excellence. It was named the town’s Large Business of the Year in recognition of its track record of growth, innovation and community activities.

“Having been with the company for 45 years and an owner with some great partners for 16 years,” Edwards says, “I’m truly proud of MRI and can say it is one of a kind in our industry, we’ve got a dedicated team of over 185 of the best damn staff in the sign industry. At MRI, safety always comes first and after that everything else just falls into place, we take care of each other, we take care of our staff and we take care of our customers.

Media Resources won a National Sign Media award in the Out-of-Home Advertising category for our work on the Fallsview Casino Woo Hoo 3D license plate billboard. The project was on display in Toronto along the Gardiner Expressway. We also picked up another award for the SAC Imagemakers competition. This time in the vehicle graphic category for the 3D fabrication and printed graphics we did for Kraft’s Bull’s-Eye BBQ Tractor.

These recognitions helped put Media Resources on the map in the sign industry and we are very proud of our employees for their outstanding effort. We would also like to thank our clients and vendors in using Media Resources as their chosen manufacturer and installer for their projects. Here’s to another great year ahead!